After Isabella by Rosie Fiore

Author:Rosie Fiore [Fiore, Rosie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2016-06-29T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Esther got home in the afternoon, after a hot, grubby, frustrating three hours spent crawling up the M3 and around the M25. Michael had gone back to his own house, having promised to come by later. Esther pushed open her front door, feeling the resistance of the pile of letters behind it. No one had been in the house in ten days. The air smelled of dust and the unemptied rubbish bin. She had left in a hurry, and the shoes she had been wearing that day were discarded beside the sofa. A pile of student papers sat on the dusty coffee table where she had dropped them, and there were still cups and plates on the draining board. It was as if the house were frozen in the moment before everything had come crashing down. When she had kicked off those shoes, she had been happy and her life had seemed to be coming together very nicely. She had been looking forward to her time in Venice. Oh God. Venice. She had completely lost track of the days. She went into the kitchen to look at the calendar. They should have flown three days ago. She picked up her phone and rang Michael.

‘Hi there,’ he said. ‘Just on my way.’

‘Venice.’

‘What about it?’

‘We were supposed to leave for Venice three days ago.’

‘As soon as I got to the Isle of Wight, it was obvious we weren’t going. I cancelled the trip and put in a claim with the travel insurance. It’s covered, don’t worry.’

‘You didn’t say anything.’

‘I would have if you’d asked, but I figured, in the greater scheme of things, I should just make it one less thing for you to worry about.’

‘You’re a good man, Michael Wolfson.’

‘Just an ordinary man,’ he said quietly, ‘who loves you.’

Her breath caught in her throat. It was the first time he had said it.

‘Thank you,’ she said, her voice barely a whisper. ‘Thank you. I don’t deserve you.’

‘I’ll see you in a bit,’ he said. She could hear he was disappointed she hadn’t said she loved him in return, but she had been caught off guard. She would say it, when the moment was right.

She wandered through the house, taking note of what needed doing. She’d have to get some shopping in and throw away all the spoiled food. But first she’d get the first lot of laundry on – she had completely run out of clean clothes and had had to buy underwear and a few bits and pieces on the island. She put a load of darks on, straight from her open suitcase, then went to collect the stack of post from the hallway. She sat at her desk and began leafing through the letters while she listened to her landline phone messages. She had missed an appointment for a boiler safety check, and the optometrist had rung to remind them that Lucie was due for an eye test. Was that all? She knew her landline was seldom used, but there were usually more messages than that.

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